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Gilbert Earle Patterson (1939-2007)

Gilbert E. Patterson, Church of God in Christ (COGIC) minister and
presiding bishop, media pioneer, and religious entrepreneur, was born
in Humboldt, Tennessee, the son of COGIC Bishop W. A. and Mary
Patterson. He grew up in Memphis and was educated in city schools until
his family moved to Detroit in 1952. As a child, he began preaching as
early as the age of four and by the age of seventeen accepted a call to
the preaching ministry of COGIC. He was ordained in 1958. He married
his wife, Louise, in 1967.

Patterson prepared for the ministry at the Detroit Bible Institute and
then at LeMoyne Owen College once he returned to Memphis in 1961. He
was installed as co-pastor at Holy Temple COGIC that same year, serving
the church alongside his father. It was as co-pastor of Holy Temple
that Patterson served as one of nine local civic and religious leaders
on a Civil Rights initiative committee that invited Martin Luther King
Jr. to come to Memphis and help with the local garbage workers’ strike.
King accepted the invitation and came to the city, delivering his
famous “Mountain Top” speech at the home church of COGIC, Mason Temple,
on April 3, 1968. King was assassinated the following day.

In 1975, Patterson left COGIC after years of feuding with the
denomination’s presiding bishop J. O. Patterson, his paternal uncle and
the son-in-law of COGIC founder, Charles Mason. Patterson believed that
his father should have been installed as bishop in the West Tennessee
District of COGIC, having been a bishop in North Carolina years
earlier. His uncle, Presiding Bishop Patterson, reserved that bishopric
for himself instead, based on his belief that, like the Roman Catholic
pope, a presiding bishop should have a territorial bishopric as well.
Years of internal family squabbles followed.

When he left, young Gilbert founded an independent church, Temple of
Deliverance, the Cathedral of Bountiful Blessings. The small
congregation moved into the Mt. Vernon Baptist Church building and
outgrew the facility within three years. In 1978, Temple of Deliverance
constructed a new twelve-hundred-seat sanctuary on the property, the
first church facility with a price tag of over one million dollars to
be built by African American workers in Memphis. During the next
decade, though Patterson was shunned by the COGIC community, his
leadership in the black community and in Pentecostal circles grew. His
exemplary preaching delivery and message of hope and healing gained him
notice and opportunity in Pentecostal churches across America. He also
became a strong moral voice within the black community and was once the
target of an assassination attempt by a parishioner who disagreed with
his stance against domestic violence. He eventually mended his rift
with his uncle and was invited back into the active COGIC ministry in
1988.

After returning to COGIC, Patterson quickly became a nationally known
religious figure and leader in the denomination, being made COGIC
bishop in West Tennessee and the city of Memphis in 1988, the post his
uncle had installed himself in years earlier. In the early 1990s,
Patterson, whose flock extended across the Mississippi River into
neighboring Arkansas, befriended the state’s governor, Bill Clinton,
who recognized Patterson’s influence within the black community in
Memphis and throughout America with his weekly television and radio
broadcasts. Clinton campaigned extensively at Temple of Deliverance
during both of his presidential runs. In 1993, through the support of
Patterson, President Bill Clinton delivered his famous “Memphis Speech”
touting the need for gun control and better police protection in
America’s inner cities at the Mason Temple COGIC.

Patterson’s ministry continued to thrive during the 1990s. By 1999,
Temple of Deliverance had a membership of over ten thousand and moved
into its current thirteen-million-dollar facility, which houses a
five-thousand-seat auditorium, day care facilities, radio station, and
recording studios. Patterson also franchised the church in two other
locations within Memphis, making it one of the first churches in
America of any kind to do so. In 1992, Patterson was elected as one of
the twelve members of COGIC’s governing board, and in 2000, he was
elected COGIC’s presiding bishop, defeating the sitting office holder,
the first time such a feat had been accomplished in COGIC history.

Worldwide numerical growth of the denomination marked Patterson’s seven
years of service as presiding bishop, and the church is now recognized
as one of the largest Pentecostal denominations of any ethnicity in the
world. Patterson’s tenure as presiding bishop and chief apostle also
saw the recognition of COGIC as an ever increasing economic, cultural,
and educational force.

Patterson, ever an innovator in church planning, continued using novel
marketing and media techniques to build the ministry of the church. In
the 1970s, he was one of the first charismatic leaders to use mass
mailing and created a church magazine, Bountiful Blessing, to reach his
flock and followers. During his tenure as the head of the denomination,
the magazine became a beacon for the entire church, and the
mailing-list ministry reached over 100,000 subscriptions worldwide.
Patterson also recognized the power of television and radio. In the
1970s, he had trouble finding air time in Memphis for a black church
service, so he marketed videotapes of his sermons through Bountiful
Blessing magazine and church conventions. He was eventually was so well
known that he was able to land air time on national cable networks
Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the Trinity Broadcasting
Network (TBN).

In the last years of his life, Patterson’s preaching and Bible studies
were seen or heard in over 350 media outlets worldwide every week. He
led Temple of Deliverance to purchase its own radio station, WBBP AM,
and founded Podium Records, which recorded black gospel music, both of
which he used to promote the efforts of COGIC. Under Patterson’s
leadership, COGIC’s yearly conference in Memphis became the city’s
largest convention. It annually draws more than sixty thousand members
and brings thirty million dollars to the local economy. Patterson also
led the denomination to open its own Bible college, All Saints, next
door to the denomination’s headquarters at Mason Temple COGIC. The
school was formed out of a merger of three COGIC Bible colleges in
Tennessee, one of which had been started by Patterson. The school
currently has over three hundred students enrolled. Recognized for
bringing COGIC to prominence as a religious and cultural institution,
Patterson won numerous national and international awards, receiving an
honorary doctorate from Oral Roberts University and being named to
Ebony’s list of the hundred most influential black Americans. Patterson
died on March 20, 2007, due to complications from cancer.

Published » January 05, 2010

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